The early start for the four Ardingly Rowing Club representatives, on the 24th of July 2011, was made worthwhile by the perfect weather conditions for the Burway regatta.

After beating the Maidenhead crew by three lengths in the first round, Megan Tucker and Anna Purvis in the WJ14 doubles were pitched against a Sir William Perkins crew in round two.
They were level with the opposition at the start and put in a good burst to take an early lead, which they maintained, winning by 3 lengths.

In the semi-finals they were up against a Marlow crew, who seemed to have the greater amount of support on the bank.
Megan and Anna unfortunately lost this race, but overall came 4th out of 16.

Georgia Fuller was the second crew of the Ardingly Rowing Club to take to the water, competing in the WJ13 category in a single.
This was Georgia’s first competition and she was doing extremely well on the first half of the race, keeping a good two boat lengths in front of her competition.
Unfortunately, around half way down, she found herself having steering difficulties which lead her to crash into the bank and the lead was taken away from her.

Megan Tucker then competed in a WJ14 single.
She won against Eton Excelsior in the first round, followed by a row-over in the second.
She was pitched against a Marlow girl in the semi-final, where Megan came from behind to win this, her toughest race of the day, by half a length.
In the final against Wallingford, Megan sustained her good start and won by a comfortable 2.5 lengths.
This was the 49th win of the season for the Club!

A select group from the men's squad travelled to Molesey to brave the downpours for this popular regatta.
David Cowderoy entered masters C1x but was beaten by a Tradesman sculler who went on to the final in this well subscribed event.
As Slavo was feeling under the weather and did not want to race 2 events, David C subbed into the D2x with David Phillips.
Despite being a scratch crew, they held off a powerful and quickly closing up Molesely B2x in the handicapped semi, and won convincingly against a Fort Worth, Texas double in the final to earn a pot.

Alex and David Law were bumped up to Senior 2x and raced well in their semi-final to beat a good Twickenham double.
Facing Molesey in the final Alex was warned early for steering, and they could not recover the distance of the staggered start, and lost by much the same amount as they started down (2Lengths).
David L, Alex, Slavo and David P also raced as a C4x.
Despite giving a 4 second handicap away to Kingston Grammar veterens D4x, Ardingly had clear water by stroke 10 in the semi.
They were then disappointed that Eton Excelsior scratched from the final as one of the crew was lost…
The regatta organisers declined Ardingly's offer to delay the race or even lend David Cowderoy to them, so rowed over for the pot.
Ted of Molesey kindly arranged for the bar staff to fill the tankards - many thanks!

After having to battle through qualifiers and beat 27 crews last year to get into the Wyfold Challenge Cup, it was a bit of an anticlimax to learn that there were only 32 entries for the 32 places this year, meaning the crew would not have to go through qualification.
Disaster struck when Paul (our Bow steersman) had to withdraw on doctor’s orders only 5 days before the regatta.
The crew were very disappointed as they felt that they had been faster this season than last and were keen to put in a good showing at HRR this year.
David, Jo and Alex were still keen to represent the club rather than withdraw, and as club member Tim Perkins agreed to step into the crew, they had a couple of outings at Henley on the Sunday.
Alex moved to stroke and David Law switched sides and moved to bow to steer as well. Steering was an issue with significant differences in raw power through the crew.

On race day Ardingly faced Thames Tradesmen ‘A’.
With very little start practice, the plan was to get away cleanly before settling and using a long powerful rhythm to reel them in if necessary.
Tradesmen did indeed get away faster, and their slender lead opened up to clear water at the top of the island as Ardingly steered very hard to avoid a collision with the booms.
The crew settled and the gap was officially 1¼ lengths at the ¼ mile signal. Now rowing strongly they steadily clawed back the deficit, so that by Upper Thames there was a canvas between the boats,
with Ardingly moving through with every stroke. Unfortunately a crab stopped the boat and Tradesmen were let off the hook.
After that Ardingly were unable to relax enough again to haul Tradesmen back for a second time.
The crew were disappointed, but pleased that they had been able to represent Ardingly at Henley Royal Regatta given the circumstances.
Many thanks to our sub Tim.

On Saturday 25th June, two junior boys, two junior girls, eight veteran men and six members of the ladies squad raced at Richmond Regatta.
These 18 club members were entered in 11 events and claimed an impressive 6 wins.

W IM2 2x – Sarah L. and Nicola concluded a successful season in the double sculls by winning the IM2 event, which included Twickenham RC and Imperial College. Beating a very strong tideway club like Imperial and winning at this higher status was very pleasing.

W IM2 4x – In what was probably the last women's quad race of the season, Sarah L., Janet, Nicola and Jenny comfortably reached the final of this event which included Vesta RC, Twickenham RC, Weybridge Ladies’, Latymer Upper and Ardingly RC.
In the final a very polished crew from Latymer Upper School were just a little too fast, finishing a length to the good over Ardingly.

Junior 15 girls – Rachel and Alice combined in a WJ15 double and were drawn against Molesey, so we knew it would be tough race.
The girls gained good experience at their first regatta on the Thames but Molesey proved too strong for them, although the final verdict was limited to a very respectable 3 lengths.
During the day club member Sophie Pritchard was cheered on winning the WJ15 singles despite racing for her other club (Globe RC).

Junior 16 boys – Jonty and Patrick were hoping for a race in their pair and despite entering the J17 event had bravely accepted a move up into Intermediate 2 for a straight final against Thames Tradesmen.
Unfortunately one of their opposition was taken ill only 20 minutes before the race and so there was no event.
However the boys were also entered in single scull events.
In Novice singles there were 5 entries and Jonty defeated the captain of Parrs priory in the semi by 3L before beating a sculler from Kingston in the final by 5L.
The final bend is very difficult to steer but in the final Jonty was perfectly positioned until he launched a "show boating" final 10 stroke burst, which very nearly ended in the bank!
There were also 5 entries in J16 including Patrick, who in his semi-final had to work round the outside of the bend to beat a sculler from Poplar.
In the final Patrick had some steering issues and was put off by the buoys on his side, this allowed a good sculler from Magdalen College School to hold the starting stagger in the first half of the course and go on to win.

Masters men – The C crew of Reg, Mick, Andy and Jon entered in coxless fours and quads to get two races, but were moved up into Intermediate 2 in both events.
Having done no sweep rowing for weeks the order was decided on the morning and not surprisingly Putney Town claimed a win, although the Ardingly four ended up quite pleased with the quality of their row.
In the quads they knew they were up against it, racing the much younger crew from Twickenham (who had tried to qualify for Henley in the Prince of Wales Cup), and they did well to keep the verdict under 3L (Twickenham went on to win the final Easily).
The E crew raced in the quad and split into D and E doubles.
The quad and D double wins were relatively comfortable claiming easy verdicts in both finals.
The E double had to work harder for their 2nd pots first against a good Upper Thames double and then having to pull back a big handicap against an F crew from Mortlake.

In summary some great results and a good days racing on the Thames with the club winning over half of the events it entered (the 6 events won by Ardingly were Womens IM2 2x, Novice 1 x, Womens Masters C 2x, Masters C/D 2x, Masters E 4x and Masters E/F 2x).

This year the senior 4 entered Marlow in order to race some of their likely Henley opposition and gain more race experience. Unfortunately the crew had to withdraw due to family illness.

However, an Ardingly contingent went to Marlow for the 1000m racing on the Sunday. Arriving just in time, due to sorting out a flat battery, Pete Billin and Slavo Radosevic raced in D2x and raced well against Lymington and Tees, unfortunately losing out to Tees by just under a second. The D4x of Slavo, David Reed, Andy Lowes and Mick Howe raced hard against old rivals and national Champions Tees, but were unable to beat them on this occasion, and finished just 1 length adrift, well clear of Thames and Vesta. The result is spurring them on towards Henley masters! Alex Dombrowe and Pete then raced as a scratch B2x and in a close 2 boat race against Upper Thames, led from the start and held on for a win.

Held two weeks before the Royal Regatta, Women's Henley Regatta is held on the same prestigious stretch of water marked by unforgiving solid wood booms which could end an unlucky crew's race in one stroke.
This year marked the first time that Ardingly Rowing Club has fielded an athlete (Fran Rawlins) and along with a member of Bewl Bridge Rowing Club (Emily Craig) they entered Senior lightweight double scull.
This event is particularly tough as it requires the athletes to have an average crew weight of just 57 kilos which may require a strict diet while still having to train hard to make weight before the event.

Fran has tasted success at a high level before, captaining her Cambridge crew to a win in the 2008 women's lightweight boat race and is well versed at top level competition.
This is Fran's first year of competitive sculling.
Emily is a junior who has been sculling for a number of years and has the attention of the national selectors, attending the U23 trials in 2010.
Emily entered the Junior double sculls at Women's Henley last year but found trouble with a gear failure in the first round.

This year's event gained eight entries of high quality meaning that if the ladies were to win they would need to progress through a quarter and semi final to make the final on Sunday afternoon.
As with all Henley races it is winner takes all and there are no prizes for second place.
First up on Saturday was Mortlake Anglian and Alpha from London, who were dispatched with ease by the crew, setting the fastest time of the quarter finals in the process, and putting them through to face a crew from Marlow, a particularly strong Thames based club.
With their confidence up they put the fight to Marlow and saw them off to book a place in the final along with a crew from Oxford City.
Tension is always high before a final but the girls held their nerve and after a storming race they beat Oxford City by one and a quarter lengths or roughly 3 seconds to become the 2011 champions. An exceptional result for a crew that has only trained together a handful of times.

The ladies are now in training to compete at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham in mid-July to see if they can add the National Championship title to their trophy from WHR.

Ardingly RC sent a large contingent to Nottingham on 12th June to compete at the British Masters' Rowing Championships,
returning home with three Gold, one Silver and one Bronze Medal.
The most successful Masters' Championships for the club to date.

Masters’ C 4x – Martyn Abbot, Pete Bilin, Andy Lowes, Jon Carter.
In a very high quality final Ardingly were placed second, 1.89 seconds behind Tees RC, and had to work hard to hold off Ryde RC and Walton RC.

Bronze Medal

Masters’ C 2x – Martyn Abbott, Jon Carter..
Ardingly RC led early on, but first Bewl Bridge and then Auriol Kensington both in the slightly more sheltered lanes were able to slip past.
So we finished third in the final ahead of, Tideway Scullers, Lincoln RC and Northwich RC.

Also racing, but not in the medals this timeMasters’ B 4x (3nd – three boat final so no medals)Womens’ IM3 B 4x (3rd – missed a silver medal by a foot, no bronze awarded)Masters’ D 4x (3rd – in a very close battle between Tees, Walton and Ardingly, no Bronze Medal Awarded)Womens’ IM3 B 2x IM3 4x (4th – Jo’s first ever regatta, placed 4th of 7 entries)

Nicola at 15 miles

Man v Horse Marathon. Nicola opted out of the Masters Championships in favour of running the annual Man v Horse Marathon in Wales on the same weekend.
Some 500 runners take on the challenging course with 4000ft of assent, mud and rivers to cross, not to mention the 50 horses just to add an extra dimension!

The morning started with pouring rain which had turned to sunshine by the time the gun went at 11am however the course was left very wet and muddy making the already tough run even harder.
It more or less stayed dry until just 2 miles to go when the heavens opened once again.
In fact, the rain was quite welcome because it made those last 2 miles the fastest of the whole course allowing Nicola to complete the race in a very respectable 3 hours 58 minutes, just squeezing into the sub 4 hour target set the night before over a glass of wine.
Placed 288th overall and beating 5 horses to boot.
(Sub 3 hours 30 next year...?)

Twickenham Regatta, held on Saturday 28th May, proved to be a successful day for Ardingly RC Ladies with all members of the squad retuning home with ‘silverware’.
The Twickenham course is challenging for coxless boats because of the narrowing of the course and the sharp bend near the finish.

IM3 2x – Sarah L. and Nicola were unlucky to lose to a much larger Molesey crew in the first round.
Leading for over half of the race, the crew experienced severe wash from a motor launch travelling just ahead of them, allowing Molesey to slip past in the more sheltered lane.

MasB 4x – Sarah S, Janet, Linda and Jenny notched up notable scalps by beating Molesey in the first round and then Vesta RC in the final to win the event.

MasC 2x – Sarah S. and Linda needed to claw back an 11 second deficit against Maidenhead in the first round to proceed to the final.
This was achieved within the last minute of the race as the crews rounded the final bend approaching the finish.
In the final Ardingly beat Mortlake A&A by a comfortable distance.

Following the cancellation of their event at Wallingford due to unfair wind conditions, the men's senior 4 were keen get the season started properly, so returned to the Royal Albert Docks, in anticipation of good hard racing and cheap burgers.

The aim of the first race in IM1 coxless fours was to go out of the blocks hard for the first 750m.
In a stern headwind, Ardingly led off the start before eventual event winners Tideway Scullers crept past.
The plan went well and Ardingly were second, up on London and well up on Tradesmen by halfway.
Unfortunately the crew didn’t quite gel in the middle of the race and London overhauled Ardingly.
However, having made the final, there was a chance for redemption.
The opening 2 minutes was not quite as good in the final, and despite a better 2nd 500m, the speed that had been shown in training eluded them in the 3rd quarter, the crew were not able to close Thames or London down and came in 5th.

Overall pleased to be closer to 'big name' clubs than last year, and showing patches of good speed, the crew were disappointed that they were unable to overcome the tough conditions to finish higher.
Inflation meant the burgers were also more expensive.

In the afternoon the middle pair of the 4 stepped aside for Jonty and Patrick to race their first 2km race in a 4 in IM2 coxless fours.
They coped well in worsening conditions and, keeping their cool, came through the same Tradesmen crew that had been dispatched by the 4 earlier in the day.
Good experience and a positive sign for the future.

Fran Rawlins also competed in the single sculls in both the morning and afternoon, and raced well,
although in the tough headwind was ultimately behind the much heavier winners.

On Saturday 14th May, six members of the Ladies’ Squad travelled to Putney to compete at the 100th Putney Town Regatta, all six returning with tankards with wins in MasB 4x and IM3 2x.

IM3 2x – The two Ardingly RC entries, placed in opposite sides of the draw, both won through to the final, making the event an all Ardingly affair.
The final was very closely fought, with never more than 2/3 of a length separating the crews.
On the line Nicola and Sarah L. narrowly beat Linda and Sarah S.

Conditions on the course were blustery, making life particularly challenging for single scullers.
Sarah L. (J18) and Janet (Novice) were both beaten in the heats of their respective events.

MasB 4x – Sarah S., Janet, Linda, Jenny beat local opposition,
Vesta RC by a distance in the final, bringing to a close an encouraging first regatta of the season and ensuring that all of the Ardingly RC contingent returned to Sussex with a tankard.

As Ardingly has no eights or coxes but 12 veterans keen to race in this event, we decided to join up with our friends from Thames Tradesmen again this year.
In the end we decided on two composites with two tradesmen oarsmen and one cox in each crew, with the ages coming out as B and D categories.
Both crews managed practice outings during March, with the D crew going out more than once.

With several Ardingly veterans racing in the HORR as well, the B crew like Saturdays head crew was reshuffled because of Jo’s illness.
The B crew had high hopes of a good performance but just never really gelled during the race, to finish in 40th placer.
Perhaps it was lack of outings, or the last minute changes, or tiredness from the day before.
Most likely a combination of all three.
The D crew’s training had gone well and they then stepped it up a further notch in the race, as they all felt the crew had found a good rhythm and worked as a unit.
The results showed they were right with 31st out of 204 crews and a pleasing 5th in the D age group.

Overall for a new small club that doesn't own an eight, to have a 4 crews racing across the women's head, the HORR and the veterans head was a great month

This year’s head crew was a mixture of our Wyfolds four, two veterans and two J16’s (with only 6 sweep outings under their belt).
The crew managed an outing in an eight the weekend before (of course the club doesn’t own an eight, so we had to travel up to the tideway).
With the stern four used to rowing together and setting a good rhythm the bow four found it easy to follow and we showed the UL development eight a clean pair of heels over 4 races.

Unfortunately the 7 man then went down ill during the week and the crew had to be reshuffled with another veteran coming in as sub.

The race was a OK but the crew had some balance problems and didn’t flow quite as well as the previous weekend, so it was a slightly downhearted crew that made the long paddle back after the finish.

Although the results showed we'd only beaten the UL fourth crew by the same amount as we’d been beating them in 4 minutes, it was still the highest ever finish by Ardingly RC.
Ardingly was 186th out of 393 finishers, which is 11 places inside the top half of the race, and we came a pleasing 24th in the Jackson trophy (for clubs that don't row on the Thames or its tributaries)

The race as always was a great event and a good experience for the two junior 16s as they were marshalling right by Chiswick Bridge and saw all the top crews racing off the start.

Ardingly RC's Senior Womens' Squad raced at the 76th Womens' Head of the River on 19th March.
This was only the second time the club has been represented at this event (the first being in 2010) and the crew was representative of all elements of the squad, both in terms of age and experience.
For Jo, who joined the squad only in September, it was her first ever rowing event !

As Ardingly RC does not possess an Eight, a trip to Dorney Lake the weekend before the event saw the crew take to the water for the first time.
In a borrowed Janousek boat, useful lessons were learned in near perfect conditions during the 20k outing, which included a row down lane 4 of the future Olympic venue, just so we could say "we've been there" when the GB crews are lining up for their finals in 2012.

On race day the crew was chased over the entire course by a lively combination from Newcastle University, who went on to win the Novice pennant.
This gave the Ardingly crew someone to push away from, and helped to focus minds and bodies on the task at hand.
Newcastle had achieved an overlap by the Black Buoy, but ARC managed to hold them off and even reduce the deficit over the final sprint for the line.

The finish position of 141st was eight places better than last year and, for a crew on only its second outing, with five novices on board, was a very satisfactory result.

Ardingly entered several crews into this event in the hope that it might run (it has been cancelled for a variety of weather reasons in recent years).
Against all expectation the event was on, and several sections of the club were represented.

The Senior men’s 4 raced as a quad in the first division, and went over at a decent rate but without any real zip to the rhythm.
Perhaps this wasn’t helped by one of the crew rowing virtually the whole race with cramp in his quads.
Winning IM2 quads (but with not enough opposition to gain a tankard) was OK, but they felt they were too far behind the composite elite and senior quads on show.
In the same division, the junior quad featuring Jonty Field, Patrick Frost, honorary vet D junior Andy Lowes and Tristan V had a good row.
Had they not picked up a time penalty they would have come within 5 seconds of the senior men – an excellent result.

The men switched to sweep for the second division and had a more promising row,
pressing on from the LRC crew behind and closing on the LRC crew ahead to take IM2 coxless fours win in a time close to their quad result and ahead of both LRC crews (and winning a pot!).

21 November - British Indoor Rowing Championships: National Title and Bronze Medal for Ardingly Juniors.

Ardingly juniors, Patrick Frost and Tristan Vouilloz excelled at the BIRC winning the Junior 16 category and a bronze medal in the Junior 18 event.

In the junior 16 event, Patrick’s winning time of 6:36.8 (a split of 1:39.2) was 2.2 seconds faster than his closest rival.
In the Junior 18 event Tristan covered the 2000m in a time of 6:17.4 (a split of 1:34.4) giving him 3rd place by a margin of 0.1 secs!

These results are another milestone for the club.
Both boys have learned to row at Ardingly and have made remarkable progress over a short period of time. Congratulations boys, from everyone at the club.

Well done to Dave Vincent who came an impressive second in Masters E in this highly competitive, international endurance event for single sculls.
Overall he was 224th out of 519 scullers in a time of 49:04.
The event was won by a past Olympic Champion, Itzok Cop in a time of 41:11.

Dave also now leads in the “most miles travelled to a regatta” competition!

Paul, Jo, Alex and Capt Dave represented the club at the Fours Head racing in the IM1 Quad event.
Following a solid race they finished the course in a time of 19:50 resulting in 98th place out of an entry of 462.
They were 32nd out of 46 crews in the IM1 event.
The crew was a little disappointed with the result, they had hoped to finish around the top 80 and put it down to not enough grunt from Hammersmith to home.
The first half was much better than previous attempts, still room for improvement though.

Following the recent addition of a new racing shell the club, for the first time ever, was able to enter two crews in this year's Veteran Fours Head.
The Masters C quad of Dave A, Pete, Alex (subbing in for a sick Martyn) and Jon at stroke finished 6th overall and 4th in their category in a time of 20:04.
This is easily the highest position the club has achieved in the Head, having never been higher than 14th before, but not quite good enough to repeat the age category win achieved last year.
The Masters D quad of Reg, Andy A, Andy L and Slavo at stroke also had a good race, passing 7 crews down the course and finishing in a time of 20:23.
This resulted in an overall position of 21st and 2nd in the Masters D category, just 6 seconds behind the winners.
A crab just before the finish line meant that only 3 scullers rowed the last 5 or 6 strokes, so who knows how many of the 6 seconds that cost.........

Well done to Dave Vincent, the clubs only representative at Marlow LDS who won the Masters E event in a time of 21:05.
This was 18 seconds faster than his closest Masters E rival from Quintin.

Dave has been training hard for the Turin Silver Skiff event which takes place in Italy the same weekend as the Fours Head.
The race takes place over 11km and attracts top scullers from around the world (although this year some of them will be at the World Championships in New Zealand!).
Good luck Vinnie!

23rd October - Weybridge Silver Sculls: Ardingly take Head of River and three category wins

Last weekend saw another successful outing for Ardingly this time at the Weybridge Silver Sculls.
The juniors, ladies and men were all represented as sixteen Ardingly crews took to the water over four divisions.
Highlight of the day was the overall win by the double of Jo Thorp and Tristan Vouilloz, who also won the IM3 2x event.
Tristan then jumped in his single to beat a field of 20 to win Novice Sculls.
His time of 14:42 placed him as 7th fastest sculler overall.
Very impressive!

Andy Lowes had his first competitive race for several years and along with Slavo enjoyed leading off division 3 and holding everybody off to cross the finish line first. Apart from Tristan’s three wins (not forgetting Jo helped with two of them) the rest of the men’s crews racked up 2nd places in their events.

The women raced 6 times in 5 events

WIM3 2x – An untried combination of Fran and Sarah L. were the fastest of the ARC entries, recording a time of 15:42 which placed them 2nd of the four crews in the event.
They lost out to a strong double from Mortlake Anglian & Alpha who were the fastest womens’ crew of the day.
Jenny & Nicola, both recovering from colds, also competed in the WIM3 2x, recording a creditable time of 16:17.

WMasC 2x – Sarah S and Linda enjoyed a strong row, navigating the infamous Walton Bridge with confidence, recording a time of 16:06 to win their event, beating BTC Southampton and Walbrook RC.

WNov 1x – Janet, who took on a large field of 14 scullers in the Novice event was placed 5th in a time of 17:49, the fastest ARC sculler on the day.

WJ18 1x – Sarah L. had an eventful race, being forced to stop by another competitor before reaching Walton Bridge and then being pushed wide between the bridges.
With a time of 17:57 she was placed 5th of the eight scullers in the event.

WMasC 1x – Not content with success in the 2x, Sarah S. also notched-up a 2nd place out of the five competitors in the Masters C 1x, completing the course in 18:03, losing only to Kingston RC.

The club juniors tackled the difficult course and headwind well and produced some promising results.
Megan and Anna in the J14 double and Alice in the J15 single finished well up the rankings, with the double just beating Staines (they had narrowly lost to a Staines double at Molesey last summer).
Alex Salmon and the J16 double of Jonty and Patrick were mid-table, but the double at least know they can go better if they attack the first-half more.
Sam and Joe were much happier with their steering on the Thames, than their previous race at Maidstone, and went a whole 2 minutes quicker than they did in this race last year (and the conditions were slower this year).

All things considered a good day on the Thames with 4 wins and plenty of experience gained.

A record number of Ardingly crews competed in the Pairs Head of the River Race over the 4000m Tideway course this weekend. The age of Ardingly crews ranged from the Junior 16 crew of Patrick and Jonty to the not so junior Mas E crew (min average age 55) of Dave V and Andy. With 453 crews actually racing on the day, our fastest club crew was Tristan and Paul who achieved an impressive 38th place overall and 7th in their boat class. Club Captain, Dave L and Martyn were also impressive winning the Mas B2x pennant. The other notable performance came from Dave V and Andy who missed out on the Mas E2x pennant by 0.21 of a second!

Overall it was a satisfying day for the club with a number of the younger members getting their first taste of racing a Tideway Head and the challenging conditions that come with it. The next racing for the club will be the Weybridge Silver Sculls before coming back to the Tideway for the Fours Head in November.

On Sunday 3rd October seven members of the Squad travelled to Maidstone for the Maidstone Small Boats HoR.
Competing in four events, the squad returned with two wins and a number of good results

Results:

WIM3 2x – Fran and Helen were the fastest combination from ARC, (and second fastest women’s crew overall), whilst winning their event in a time of 11:29, some 8 seconds faster than 2nd placed Bewl Bridge.
Also in this event were Linda and Sarah S. who were 3rd with a time of 11:49 and Nicola and Sarah L., 4th with 12:10.

WIM2 2x – This was just a row for a time for Nicola and Jenny who completed the course as the 2nd fastest ARC crew in 11:46.

WIM3 1x – A time of 12:30 saw Fran take the medal in this event, ahead of Linda (13:00), Jenny (13:10) and Sarah S. (13:15).

WJ18 1x – Sarah L., who recorded a time of 12:48, was placed 2nd in her sculling event behind a talented sculler from Bewl Bridge.

On the weekend of the 18th & 19th September, six members of the Womens' Squad travelled to Lincolnshire to compete in the annual 31 mile Boston Rowing Marathon.
This was the first time the women's section of the club had been represented at this event and all four crews finished the course within 30 minutes of each other.

The fastest crew of the day was Linda & Sarah S. in WMasB 2x.
Their time of 4:38:40 was only 5 mins. 37 seconds behind the winners from Weybridge.
They were placed 127th of the 243 starters.
Next fastest for ARC were Jenny & Nicola in the WIM3 2x with a finish time of 4:45:21, placing them 3rd in IM3 and 147th overall.

Fran and Sarah entered in single sculls (WIM3 1x and WJ18 1x respectively).
Fran finished 2nd in a time of 5:00:32 (179th overall) and Sarah in 5:15:17 (196th).

Despite the inevitable aches and pains and blistered hands there were mutterings of ‘next year ……’ heard from several of the group on the way home.

This weekend five of the men's squad got the coaches permission to skip training on Sunday in order to compete in the 112km Southern Cycling Sportive.
Andy A, Dave A, Jon, Pete and the club Captain Dave L swapped their rowing lycra for the padded crotch variety and joined the other 1200 riders on the roads around Petersfield.

They completed the course in a time of 4 hours and 31 mins (including two feed station stops) and at an average speed of 17mph.
The target time was 20 mins quicker, but given that this was the first sportive for 3 of them that was probably a little ambitious.
Overall the average time of all competitors was 4 hours 50 mins.

Once sufficient tea and cake had been consumed all agreed that it was a great event, good cross training and a great excuse to put on yet more lycra !

A record number of men and junior rowers all aiming to race over the coming season turned out for the start of training at the reservoir this past weekend.
In all there were eight doubles and a couple of singles afloat who were able to train on an empty reservoir without having navigate through the wash of other water users.

The session was a test of Mostyn’s coaching and organisation skills (or cat herding as he prefers to call it!).
With a wide range of age groups and abilities present it is somewhat of a coaching nightmare, but it bodes well for the coming season particularly for the growing veterans squad.
Mostyn is always looking to add to the men’s senior squad and would be interested in speaking to anyone who has rowing or sculling experience and is looking for a club south of London.
Ardingly qualified a crew for the Wyfolds last season and would like to add to that in 2011.

The ladies section is also enjoying an increase in its membership, with structured training they will also be competing over the coming months.
If you would like to speak with any of the club coaches or the Captain please refer to the Phone numbers and e-mail addresses on the contacts section of the website.